Dog Shooting Settlement

Wednesday,February27th,2013

If you walk out to your car tonight and you see a Giraffe sleeping under your car, what should you do? Can you coax it out with a banana. Or, since they like vegetation, could you simply offer a Portobello sandwich?

Where am I going with this? Exactly! This is senseless. That’s the feeling I had when I read this story in The Seattle Times.

In 2010, a family had gone out of town for the day while leaving their dog Rosie, in the backyard. The 4-year-old dog got out of the fenced backyard and police were called by someone in the neighborhood, to get the escaped dog.

Much of the police activities were caught on the car dashboard camera. One of the officers can be heard asking, “Once we get him, what are we gonna do with him?” One officer discussed using a taser; the other officer commented that they should just “choke her out”.

The audio on the camera suggests that within ten minutes of arriving to the neighborhood, the officers were talking about shooting the dog; even though there was no indication of danger except that the dog had been reported as barking and was a large animal. (Newfoundland)

They eventually saw the dog when it ran into the backyard of a home about four blocks from its home. Then, one of the officers shot the dog with an assault rifle. According to the audio, the gun was fired three more times.

The family returned home later that day, unaware of what had happened to Rosie. They called friends and police to see if anyone could find her. The police did not report any information. Only after a taser dart was found in the backyard that law enforcement marked, did the police acknowledge that officers had killed the dog.

Soon, a freedom of information request was sent for all information relating to the shooting. That is when the audio and camera footage became available.

A civil rights lawsuit was filed in federal court against the police department, with a claim that the family’s civil rights had been violated The basis of the suit was that the Fourth Amendment guarantees citizens to be secure in persons and effects.

The police department of Des Moines, Washington, responded that they had investigated the shooting and concluded that the officer’s actions were justified.

The community was outraged over the shooting of this friendly dog. It didn’t help that the only reason that the police admitted to the shooting was the taser dart left in the yard. The lawsuit has now settled. The town agreed to pay $51,000. A story of animal rights in Washington state.

This kind of story stirs me up as a dog lover. So, for pic o’ day, I am staying random with some giraffes. How about a working giraffe

Or a giraffe with an apple pie. Yes, I know, it would be exciting if I had a pot pie too.

Comments

R. Thomas

Poor Rosie. What a heartbreaking story.

02/28/2013

Lindsay B

This is so sad. We trust police officers to protect us and our 4-legged friends, not kill them! I can't believe that killing the dog even crossed their minds... I'm glad the family took action against these senseless people we call authority..

02/28/2013

amott

Makes me cry. Newfies are the sweetest dogs. Stupid cops.

02/28/2013

Paige D.

That is so sad! I can never wrap my head around people being so cruel to animals :(